Poverty

Downtown West consistently had higher percentages than Minneapolis of all people below the
poverty level and people 65 years and older below the poverty level. However, the trend lines for both groups went down in the neighborhood and in the city. In 1999, the gap between city and neighborhood of all people living in poverty narrowed to 3 percent.

In contrast with the
population at large, Downtown West's percentage of
families living below the poverty level was consistently below the percentage in Minneapolis. Meanwhile the neighborhood's percentage of families below the poverty level with children, which was at zero in 1979 and 1989, jumped to 31 percent in 1999, exceeding Minneapolis' percentage.